INION ESSAY | sm opinion essay (auch argumentative essay genannt) wird von dir erwartet, dass du deine Meinung zu einem rimmten Thema darlegst und den Leser von der Richtigkeit deines Standpunkts Uberzeugst. Die Struktur und die male des opinion essay sind der des discursive essays sehr ahnlich. Der einzige, aber entscheidende Unterschied arin, dass du in einem opinion essay nur eine, némlich deine Meinung daregst.. ‘State your the: [ Stelle deine Behauptung/Meinung (thesis) auf, die du erkrst und verteidigst. ‘Take a clear | AuBere ganz klar, welche Position du zu diesem Thema einnimmst. Du bist entweder defir position: _ oder dagegen © Definiert das Problem. © Sollte kar, kurz und interessant sein. = Kann auch ein allgemeiner Kommentar sein. Erwahnt eine ungewihnliche oder verbliffende Tatsache. | © Stellt eine rhetorische oder provokante Frage. © Sprit den Leser an. 1 _Driickt die thesis statement, die wichtigste Idee, aus. © ‘ede Idee/jeder Punkt wird in einem eigenen, gut aufgebauten Absatz behandelt. ‘Jeder Absatz beginnt mit dem topic sentence. (Siehe paragraphs S. 52) ‘ede Idee unterstiitat die thesis. Die zahlreichen Argumente werden strukturiert,z.B. vom Allgemeinen zum Sperifischen oder umgekehrt, vom wenig 2um héchst Intetessanten,... Erktérungen, Beispiele, Fakten, Grinde, Verleiche, Kontraste, ... Kann auch lan antrnmnnennnt 7 | Main Body: Tw. die Aufgabenstellung beziehen. sateen usammen. eins lng “es re a ic curz in ein bis zwei | CesnnrarmrarFotxeen meee Sn || m Formutiert nochmals deine Meinung 1 a \ © Vermittett eine zufriede jenstellende, Klare Schl sigerung. a vere ae ser wee mA | 1 Dabsehtse bli dem Leer in frinnerung! ‘ein opinion essay kann also folgendermaBen ausscheu cai — “patter of exposition in paragon General to specific \ Preah | ‘Specific to general ato est resting, ata | ogee Problem to solution | ‘Question to answerHOW TO PLAN AN ESSAY ‘Selection By Wolfgang Pick! A. Introductions and Definitions (1) Wir leben im Zeitalter des .. We in the age of This is the age of. Ours may be called the time of ‘We are onthe threshold of _| the era o (2) Viete Leute glauben,d ‘There are many people | (end 6) think that. who Most of us (Gnd it dificult o) believe that. More and more people | are convinced that maintain tat. are ofthe opinion that. are interested in hhave come to know and enjoy .. ive litle thought .. could not imaging (3) Wir konnten uns .. nicht mehr aus dem Leben weg- denken. ‘We could not imagine It is almost impossible to (modern) ie without imagine .. (4) Heutzutage neigt man zu. Nowadays | there is a tendency towards [noun]. Atpresent _|there isatrend | to [verb]. (5) In letzter Zeit wurden bel .. bedeutende Fortschritte cerzielt. Lately rapid progress has been made Recently striking advances have been echieved i In recent years notable improvements have been ‘achieved in. Itis only recently that | (considerable) efforts have been made to In that past few that important successes have been decades ‘achieved in. During the last few | major changes have occurred in... months [Over the past few | excellent results have been years. obtained in. there have been rapid is becoming more and more popular. A remade is coming more and more into the forefront. (5) ian us j= rec sintchst (Ja diesem Zusammenhang) mt _. [(Now) [Letus rum to (8 question we previously (15 Zande a em Zasanmenang) tee eh — Tshould like to | deal with come back to eee losceee etme draw your atetion to. iene an (6) Es gibt viel derartige Beispele (Fle. point out [There are many such examples (instances) mention. give you an idea of... | _(7) Ich mBchte nun einige Beispiele anfuhren. ‘draw your attention to] [(Now) | Let me give ‘some examples. a Letustumto | another example. Letus consider [afew examples ilusrating... ‘Aza proof of. etme cite Here are (Here is) ... Let ve take the example of ‘Before approaching the subject from the vi point of . 'we should (17) Jahrhundertelang (Fraher) nahm For (many) centuries Jit was [assumed hat Formerly taken for granted In former times. argued (8) Aber ich will nicht zu lange bei diesem Thema bleiben. However, I do not wish to dwell upon this subject oo long. I shall, howeverrefrain from dwelling on this subject too long. Iwill, however, drop this subject now. Going into details would carry me too far. (9) Ich habe mich auf wenige Beispicle beschrinkt, weil .. Thave [restricted myselfto [these few examples [because confined myselfto | these few remarks |. concentrated on ‘© Wolfgang Pickl ‘How to plan an essay, page 2ius (All das) betrifM 7) Zmelfelos.. J relates to... Doubtless, .. ‘concerns .. No doubt, refers to... Undoubtedly, .. ‘Without doubt, Beyond doubt, As regards (in) regard 0 .. (8) Man kann nicht leugnen, With (In) respect to. Treannot be denied that. I must be admitted (11) Wie der Name (Titel) schon sagt It goes without saying ‘As the name implies, It stands to reason Asthe title denotes It scarcely need be said suggests, | need hardly tell you ". Certainty or doubt (1) Teh bin (ganz) sicher, da... Itis scarcely necessary to point out (9) Tatsteblich .. Tam | (absolutely) certain thet feel | (almost) sure that (quite) positive that. (ally) convinced tht (fully) aware that. inclined to agree with many others that. (Actually, /As a matter of fact. in fact, .. |The fact is that Iisa fact that. 10) Koh mbchte wissen, ob (2) Ich wei8 aus eigener Erfahrung, dsb. T wonder if. would like to know whether. (oF .) From my own experience know thal We do not (et) know (For certain) | when, wis, which, From past experience know that why. ete Tow perfectly well fal (11) Auf den ersten Blick KOnnte man meinen, d28 3 (2) Bs ist ar, aber nach genauerer Oberprofung wird man sicherich tts obvious tat. finden, dad .. spparest At first sight [we might believe hat. bat evident ‘At first glance |i appears that Tis eeme only natal ‘Atfirst perusal |it seems thet. Itis hardly surprising one tends to believe that. ona cloner view we wil certainly Rnd that (4) Offenbar (Wahrscheinlich) ... ‘on more careful inspection tar c¥nnrctniey sementieon | ac evident fon closer consideration _|the following becomes clear: ly ‘on reflection ‘if we look more closely, Pr it we go tothe root ofthe In all iketihood ewe gou (5) Es ist (sehr) (un)wahrscheinlich, dab .. iis ‘ighly) probable thar] (2 eenta ‘It appears (very) likely that... ‘any case / event, Itseems (most) improbable that. Pete ssi This makes it appear _| (rather) unlikely that ... By all means, (6) Es ist zweifelhaft, ob... Anyways oo [vveakest Soot] me ae whether (13) Keinestats. toerain [On no account, “There is some uncertainty whether .. In no case. By no means © Wolfgang Pick! How to plan an essay, page 3inion or feelings ch mehme an, da0 ... (Vermutlich.. resume that. 1 Suppose that expect that... 2) Meiner Meinung nach .. In my opinion, . In my view, .. (3) Nach ..2u sehlieBen, kann man annchmen, dat Judging from... ] we may assume that Judging by ‘we may conclude we may suppose . (x soll (angeblich) (5) Ich mu zugeben, 6 Tmust admit It must be confessed That. (6) Ich kann nicht umbin, zu denken, dad. E. General statement or classification das beweist this proves das ist mit... unvereinbar this is incompatible with .. vieles spricht flr (gegen) there is «great deal to be said in fevour of / for / against es ist von groGter Wichtigket, da8 .. what does matters. es ist nicht sehr wesentlich it matters litle itean only be regretted that ‘hata pity that strictly/generally speaking briefly/in shorvin a word, . to put it ina nutshell, in other words/that is to say in anderen Worten bei dieser (ahnlicher) Gelegenhei in mancher Hinsicht ..._in some ways/respects, ineinem bestimmten AusmaB to a certain degree/extent es ist bemerkenswert, daB it is worth mentioning that. itis interesting to note thet. es ist oberraschend, da. itis surprising that .. das is typisch ft. this is typical of | aus. it is characterised by .. it corresponds to... es ist (ganz) anders als... itis in sharp contrast to... ]dazu gehOrt (geh0ren) ..._it includes/comprises/covers Jes het sowohl Vor- wie Nachteile ithas both advantages and disadvantages von Zeit zu Zeit. at intervals. every now and then derzeit forthe time being /at present im Laure der Zeit as time goes/went on in the long run Teannot help thinking bat cannot resist eee ing F. Conclusion 5 we may say that i eeneet bat in ‘it may be said that .. in iudincie ne emer gar caine Believe ior not, itmight be well to remember Strange as it may seem, .. 2) Alles fa allem glaube ich, kann man sagen, da. Das a (On the whole, |] believe that it is correct to say that ... | This holds true for .. All in all, || think (it would be best to) .. [The same holds for itis tobe expected that. This is (equally) true of. it seems safe to say that. This applies to. (3) Wenn man die Vor- und Nachteile berUcksichtigt, (9) Hier erbebt sich dle Frage, ob ann man sehlieBen, dad .. Here the questions arises whether (Considering (al) - | we may conclude ‘This raises the question its advantages and | hat.. “This raises the point rawbacks Controversy exists as to ‘After weighing the [we may anve tthe conclosion tat prosandcons..._| we may come to (© Wolfgang Pick How to plan an essay, page 4(4) So haben wir gesehen, dab "Thus we have seen that. ‘The conclusion is. Ths itis. (5) Aus den angegeben Grandes tis for the reasons stated that. (©) In diesem Aufsatz (Vorteag) habe Ich mich bemaht zu ab beweisen, 496 ex —_—__ In this composition (talk) I have endeavoured to prove that. Was immer die Zukunft bringen mag... [Whatever the future may hold, Be it as it may, . We do not know what lies in store for us inthe future, but. Although the outcome is unpredictable, .. Looking further ahead .. 8) Nur 30 wird es mbglich sein, 20. ‘Only inthis way | will tbe possible 0... Only by this means | may we eccomplish the tsk of . (9) Zollen wir daber Jenen Anerkenmung, die Let us, therefore, offer tribute to those who. [We should, therefore, pay G. Linking words Another. Simiary . For example = e.g For instance Namely = viz. Respectively = resp. Then . Nevertheless. sul. However. athe came time in all probability .. In all likelihood Atal events . In any case .. Therefore Thats why .. Consequently. | Accordingly... Asa result... In consequence ofthis. As might be expected Because of. The preceding .. The foregoing .. As aiready sated . [As previously mentioned .. Las, but not least. Last. FinallyUseful phrases for writing essays - Bachelor students 2006 This lst is not exhaustive, but has been designed to give students the basic phrases that they can use to Structure their essays coherently. Do not overuse these phrases, and make sure that your essays have lenty of interesting and relevant content Section 1: General Essay Phrases A. Introductory remarks. Ieis generally agreed today that. In approaching this issue, one should. Nowadays, itis scarcely possible to ‘The business world offers us numerous examples of. B. Developing the argument ‘The first aspect to point out is that. Let us start by considering the facts, C. The other side of the argument It would also be interesting to see... One should, nevertheless, consider the problem from another angle, Equally relevant to the issue are the questions of. D. Balancing views ‘One should always remember that... One should, however, not forget that. ‘We could perhaps go further and ask ourselves whether. E, Conclusion ‘The arguments we have presented... suggest that../ prove tht../ would indicate that. From these arguments one must... could../ might... conclude tht. All ofthis points to the conclusion that. F. Ordering elements Firstly,... Secondly,../ Finally... (note the comma afterall these introductory words) fon the one hand it can be said that. the same is not true for. ‘The first argument suggests that... whilst the second suggests that... G. Adding elements Furthermore, one should not forget that. In addition to... Moreover... H. Accepting other points of view Nevertheless, one should accept that. However, we also agree that...I Personal opinion We personally believe that. Our own point of view is that. J. Others! opinions Experts «= believe that vw Say that suggest that ‘are convinced that point out that emphasise that According to some experts. K. Introducing examples Take for example. To illustrate this point one need only refer to. L. Introducing facts Is... true that../ clear that../ noticeable that.. ‘One should note here that. M. Saying what you think is true ‘This leads us to believe that. Is very possible that... In view of these facts, it is quite likely that... N. Certainty Doubtless. One cannot deny that. Itis (very) clear from these observations that. 0. Doubt Alll the same, it is possible that. Iis difficult to believe that. P. Accepting other points to certain degree ‘The decision was a good one. Nonetheless, (One can agree up to a certain point with. Certainly... However, Tt eannot be denied that... Q. Emphasising particular points The last example highlights that fact that... Not only... but also... ‘We would even go so far as to say that... R. Moderating, agreeing, disagreeing By and large...Pethaps we should also point out the fact that... It would be unfair not to mention that fact that. One must admit that. We cannot ignore the fact that... One cannot possibly accept the fact that. S. Consequences From these facts, one may conclude that. ‘That is why, in our opinion, Which seems to confirm the idea that. Thus,... Therefore... ‘T. Comparison Some experts suggest... whereas others. ‘Compared to. ‘On the one hand there is the firm belief that... On the other hand, many people are convinced that. Section 2: Phrases For Balanced Arguments INTRODUCTION It is often said that.. It is undeniable that.. It is a well-known fact that For the great majority of people. We live in a world in which. ‘A umber of key issues arise from the statement. For one... One of the most striking features ofthis problem is. First of al, let us try to understand... ‘The public in general tend to believe that. THESIS ‘The first thing that needs to be said is. One argument in support of... ‘We must distinguish carefully between, ‘The second reason for... ‘An important aspect of the problem is. It is worth stating at this point that ANTITHESIS ‘On the other hand, we can observe that... ‘The other side of the coin is, however, that Another way of looking at this question isto... SYNTHESIS ‘The fact of the matter is surely that. ‘The truth of the matter is simply that... ‘On balance, we can safely say that.On reflection, it seems more accurate to say that. If one weighs the pros and the cons of the case, one soon realises thet.. In the final analy CONCLUSION What conclusions can be drawn from all this? ‘The most satisfactory conclusion that we can come to is. To sum up... we are convinced that... ..we believe that. ..we have to accept that. Final Notes 1. Overuse of "ery." Be careful not to overuse the word "very." You may be penalised for exaggerating a point in your essay, so use this word sparingly to qualify another adjective or adverb. 2. The word "thing" AA lot of confusion arises, and a lot of bad style arises, from the way students use the word “thing.” Avoid this word as much as possible and replace it as often as possible with the name of whatever you are referring to Examples: x One thing that needs to be said. -> One point that needs to be made... x Many things can be said against trade unions. -> One can criticise trade unions for the fact that... 3, Style and grammar a."And.".. "But" Avoid starting a sentence with "And’ or "But." Although there are instances where one might do so, it is generally not such a good idea. being" Avoid starting a sentence with an "-ing" form. Although there are instances where this is possible, most students get these structures wrong, so unless you are absolutely certain about what you are doing, keep to more standard structures. c. Commas, and "that" ‘Typically German phrases that contain a Examples: DE: Es ist klar, dass... (with comma) GB: It is clear that... (No comma) . dass" do NOT contain commas in English. DE: Man muss auch zugeben, dass... GB: One has to admit that.. March, 2006Useful Essay Words and Phrases Certain words are used to link ideas and to signpost the reader the direction your line of reasoning is about to take, such as adding more emphasis, or introducing an alternative point of view. Below is a selection of words used to link ideas, depending on the direction of your argument. Adding more to a point already made moreover; furthermore; again; further; what is more; in addition besides; above all; as well (as) either; neither...nor; not only.,.but also; similarly; correspondingly; in the same way; indeed in fact; really; in reality, it is found that. a for, as to; with respect to; regarding Writing in lists first(ly); second({y); third(ly) another; yet another; in addition; finally to begin with; in the second place moreover; additionally; also next; then; and to conclude; lastly; finally Putting the same idea in a different way in other words; rather, or; better; in that case ‘0 put it (more) simply in view of this; with this in mind 10 look at this another way Introducing examples that is to say; in other words for example; for instance; namely; an example of this i and; as follows; as in the following examples; such as; including especially; particularly; in particular, notably; chiefly; mainly; mostly Introducing an alternative viewpoint by contrast; another way of viewing this is; alternatively; again; rather, one alternative is; another possibility is fon the one hand....on the other hand conversely; in comparison; on the contrary; in fact; though; although Returning to emphasise your earlier viewpoint however, nonetheless; in the final analysis; despite x; notwithstanding x; in spite of x while x may be true, nonethelessalthough; though; after all; at the same time; on the other hang; all the same: even if xis true; although x may have a good point ‘Showing the results of something therefore; accordingly; as a result 80, (then,) it can be seen that the result is; the consequence is resulting from this; consequently; now we can see, then, that; itis evident that because of this; thus; hence; for this reason; owing to x; this suggests that; it follows that in other words; otherwise; in that case; that implies ‘Summing up or concluding therefore; so, my conclusion is in short; in conclusion; to conclude; in all; on the whole to summarise; to sum up briefly; in brief; altogether, overall; thus; thus we can see that Useful phrases to introduce quotations as X points out,... According to X,.. To quote from X, ‘...' X states/suggests that. X tells/shows us that... In an article entitled ‘Name of Text’, X makes the point that. Referring to ..., X argues that As X stated/wrote/argued/discussed/expressed the concern, ... In Name of Text, X primarily suggests ... Whilst acknowledging ... X makes the significant claim that... Writing in 1926, X argued that ... Useful phrases to follow quotations However, Y suggests that Yet this does not go far enough This seems untenable because This theory best fits the known facts, since... References Stella Cottrell The Study Skills Handbook (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003)